Chelsea and Marina Granovskaia have been told not to sign Erling Haaland to partner current club-record signing Romelu Lukaku as they are too similar to each other.
Haaland, 21, was strongly linked to taking the vacant number 9 jersey in the most recent transfer window but Granovskaia and co. opted for the more financially feasible option of reuniting Lukaku with his much-beloved club.
That signing was thought to kill off any chances the European Champions had of signing the much wanted Borussia Dortmund star but his much talked about release clause (£63million) has tempted Thomas Tuchel to rekindle any hopes the Blues have of beating the likes of Real Madrid, Man City and Manchester United to this certain transfer next summer.
Talking to SportBILD, the Chelsea manager said: “We talked about Erling Haaland a couple of times, including during the transfer window. But then it seemed absolutely unrealistic and not at all feasible.
“We talk about him regularly, of course, because he’s a fantastic player and clearly the defining figure at Dortmund, who is a big rival for us in the Champions League.”
He continued: “I don’t think we’ve been really serious about it yet, but let’s see what will happen in the next few weeks.”
According to ESPN, Haaland is demanding a pay packet of £30million a year - which works out as a weekly wage of approximately £500,000.
A deal which would break the whole wage structure in west London but as we know, Granovskaia will only broker a deal on her terms like she did when negotiating with Inter Milan for their most prized asset.
However, Lukaku's former Inter Milan team-mate Stefan de Vrij has already hinted that it may not have the desired effect in practice.
He explained to Niewsblad back in September that Haaland employs a similar playing style to Lukaku, suggesting that they might lack the required synergy to benefit each other in a two-up-top system.
"He reminds me of Romelu,” said De Vrij when quizzed on the Dortmund star.
"Obviously I played a lot against him during training. You can compare them in terms of their style of play, so I knew what to expect."
